PROSSER, Wash. — On a freezing day in Prosser, the anticipation is palpable.
Not just to get out of the cold wind and snow, but for the future of Prosser Memorial Health.
“It means so much not just to me, but to our community,” CEO Craig Marks said.
In two year’s time, the plot of land off of Wine Country and Gap Roads, will house the new Prosser Memorial Health hospital.
The current campus is decades old, dating back to the post-World War II era.
Mark said they need more room to grow and meet the needs of the community.
“We will provide a lot of the same services but it’ll give us more room to grow. Over the last five years we’ve grown tremendously and we’ve just outgrown our current facility,” Marks said they’re growing at a 10 percent increase per year when it comes to staffing.
The replacement can’t come soon enough.
According to a packet summarizing the project, the current campus doesn’t have ICU rooms, has aging infrastructure and code deficiencies that can’t be remedied without negatively impacting hospital functions.
“We’ve been serving our community for 75 years and today was like a chance to continue that – expand what we’ve been doing for the past 75 years and better be able to meet the needs of our community,” Marks said.
Renovating the hospital was looked at as an option, but in the end, building a new campus with new infrastructure was found to be more beneficial in the long run.
“We will provide a lot of the same services but it’ll give us more room to grow. To also add some additional services such as oncology wound care cardiology a number of services that our community really needs and we’re excited to provide,” Marks said.
They’re also building this hospital, without raising local taxes.
“That’s really important to me and to our board that we did not want to add any additional tax burden onto our citizens. By working with the United States Department of Agriculture to do this project without asking for additional funds from our community and again, we’ve saved our money that we’ve made over the year so we could do that,” the USDA will fund $80.5 million of the $112 million dollar project.
Part of the project has already been paid for, when PMH purchased the land in 2017.
“So thankful for our community and the support they’ve given us already, we truly look forward to serving them in the future.”
Marks said they hope to have a grand opening in two years. As for the old campus, Prosser Memorial Health plans to either sell the building and grounds or raze the property and return it to residential zoning.
You can learn more about the project, including donating funds, here.
More headlines from KAPP KVEW:
COPYRIGHT 2022 BY YAKTRINEWS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.